2 Apr 2016

Over the course of three days, Holden Caulfield, a rich kid who can't stop getting expelled from every school he attends, wanders around Manhattan (New York) trying to get drunk and lucky (lucky not just with money, but girls)No, it's not the plot of an unreleased Gossip Girl season (RIP). It's the plot of The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger's beloved, banned, criticized, worshiped, and—well, let’s just say polarizing 1951 novel about a depressed high school boy with a heart of gold.

The Catcher in the Rye is a book about a teenager trying to find a way to be true to himself while growing up in a world full of fakes — and a book about America after World War II going into the deceptions of consumerism while trying to pretend that the trauma of the atomic bomb didn’t happen. No wonder The Catcher in the Rye ended up as a symbol of alienation and isolation for the disillusioned and disturbed post-war generation.